Simon Woods, European Sales, Marketing and Logistics Director explains how West Fraser is helping the construction industry to help the environment

As the world becomes more and more aware of the effect we have on the planet, it is important for the construction industry to realise how it affects the world in ways it doesn’t intend to. At West Fraser, our products are net carbon negative.  This means that we lock up more carbon in the products than we emit in the end-to-end production and distribution of them (delivery to our customers’ gates). Attaining net carbon negativity, as we have done, is a significant step and demonstrates the company’s determination to be a market leader in sustainable, climate-friendly products. As wood is the main component of West Fraser’s products, carbon is sequestered and locked up for the board’s lifetime. Particleboard products have the added advantage of containing 70-80% post-consumer recycled wood; this is also used in OSB. As a result, the company’s four European sites and three product ranges lock up a total of 1.18 million tonnes of CO2e per year, equivalent to the CO2 from 200,265 homes’ electricity. West Fraser’s net carbon negative products’ status benefits specifiers and users of the company’s engineered wood panel products. When used in construction, these products can move a project’s carbon count in the right direction assisting companies to meet net zero targets, which is good for reputation, compliance and the planet.

In every SterlingOSB Zero board more carbon from the atmosphere is locked up than is emitted during manufacture, locking it up into long term storage. Per cubic metre, SterlingOSB Zero has sequestered 828kg of CO2e. The vast majority of the wood used is homegrown, minimising carbon emissions from transport while ensuring it is always available and offers a cost-effective building solution.

West Fraser is a diversified wood products company with more than 60 facilities in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.  From responsibly sourced and sustainably managed forest resources, West Fraser produces lumber, engineered wood (OSB, LVL, MDF, plywood, particleboard), and other products including pulp, newsprint, wood chips and renewable energy.  West Fraser’s products are used in construction, repair and remodelling, industrial applications, papers, tissue and box materials.

For further information call 01786 812 921 or visit Uk.westfraser.com

CTEK welcomes ruling on mandatory EV chargers for new builds in England

CTEK, the leading global brand in vehicle charging solutions, has welcomed the recent Government announcement that new homes and buildings in England, and commercial buildings undergoing major renovation, will be required by law to install electric vehicle (EV) charging points from next year.

The move will see up to 145,000 charging points installed across the country each year, as the UK heads along the ‘road to zero’ and net zero emissions by 2050.

Cecilia Routledge, Global Head of E-Mobility at CTEK, said: “This ruling is an important step in the development of a robust and extensive EV charging network, which is critical to support the growing numbers of EVs on our roads. It will also encourage further EV adoption, as the availability of reliable public and destination chargers is one of the key considerations for motorists thinking about making the switch to electric.”

This view is supported by a recent CTEK/YouGov survey¹ which revealed that, while three quarters (74%) of UK adults believe that electric motoring is the future of road travel, 78% feel the charging infrastructure is not adequate to support the growth of EVs, compared with 65% in other European countries surveyed. The survey also revealed that, while 68% of UK EV drivers still prefer to charge at home, more than a third (37%) are now using public or destination chargers, 12% are charging at work and 9% at petrol stations.

“Drivers are increasingly mapping out their journeys based on the availability of chargers – not only at their final destination, but also en route,” continued Cecilia. “Availability of destination charging will increasingly feature in drivers’ choice of hotel, retail and leisure outlet – and this makes the installation of reliable EV chargers a sound business investment. It will also help businesses meet their sustainability targets, thereby supporting a cleaner, greener future for us all.”

CTEK’s research, drawn from some 8 million EV transactions, reveals that the average length of time on a destination charger is 20 minutes, with drivers tending to top up their batteries rather than charge from empty. At supermarkets and smaller retail outlets, this gives drivers plenty of time to pop in and do a bit of shopping, or get a quick coffee or snack. And at hotels, workplaces and larger shopping centres, where drivers tend to stop for longer or even overnight, drivers can get a fuller charge. This provides a valuable resource for drivers on longer journeys and those with nowhere to install a home charger.

“In most cases, an alternating current (AC) charger will meet drivers’ destination charging needs,” says Cecilia. “When choosing a charger, reliability is also key consideration, as drivers need to be reassured that they will be able to recharge or top up their vehicles at destinations, before returning home, or for whatever journey they face next.”

For destination owners looking for a cost-effective way of installing or expanding an EV charging network, CTEK offers a dual socket Chargestorm Connected 2 AC charger, where two vehicles can plug in and charge at the same time. This can halve the number of physical units that need to be installed, and at considerably reduced cost. This is especially so as the dual socket chargers qualify for two Government Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) grants. The £350 WCS grants are available ‘per socket’ and not ‘per charger’, so you’ll get £700 back for every Chargestorm Connected 2 charger installed, up to a maximum of £14,000 for a network of 20 dual socket chargers. These chargers can be wall or pole mounted, inside or out, and CTEK also offers a 4 socket ‘back to back’ solution, where two dual socket chargers can be sited on a single pole.

“Sustainable transport has gone full circle and the future lies with rechargeable vehicles,” said Cecilia. “In the days of horses and carriages, the original sustainable transport, you’d have stopped in town or at an inn to ‘refuel’ (feed, water and rest) your horses. With an EV, you’re still stopping to recharge for your onward journey, it’s just a different kind of horsepower!”

For more information, please visit ctek.com/uk/destination-charging

Britain is on a green mission, so why are new homes not being built to achieve top energy efficiency ratings? We asked the 10 largest housebuilders

• Government is pushing for the UK to have more energy efficient properties
• New builds play a big role as it is expensive to retrofit an existing house 
• We asked housebuilders about the energy efficiency of their homes 
• Only five responded and just one answered all of our questions 
• Some said getting an EPC A was expensive and regulations didn’t force them to  

By Helen Crane For This Is Money

Around 240,000 new homes are completed each year, but the majority are still not being built to the highest possible levels of energy efficiency.

The eco credentials of our properties have been in the spotlight recently, as countries around the world made commitments to reduce their carbon emissions at the recent COP 26 conference.

The UK Government is leading this energy efficiency drive and has made several policy changes that will ultimately see homeowners forced to improve properties that do not meet certain standards.

Its current aim is to have as many homes as possible reach a C rating by 2035, with an earlier deadline of 2028 for buy-to-let properties.

Given that it is much easier to build an energy efficient new home than to retrofit an older one, housebuilders play an important role in meeting these targets.

This is Money contacted the UK’s ten largest housebuilders by volume, which are responsible for the vast majority of dwellings completed, to ask them about the EPC ratings on their new homes.

Half of them did not provide a response, suggesting that the industry is on the back foot when it comes to communicating with customers about it.

The responses we did get suggested that most new-builds currently achieve a B rating and will therefore meet the 2035 target.

However, the likelihood is that energy efficiency requirements will become more stringent as time goes on and home heating and insulating technology develops.

Even if they do not, the data shows customers increasingly want to live in more energy efficient homes.

A recent Halifax survey found that A-rated properties were worth up to £40,000 more than G-rated homes, for example.

The number of A rated homes being built appears to represent a small proportion of the total homes built, with one builder admitting that these represented only 10 per cent of its output in the last financial year.

Three builders also admitted that they were still building some C-rated homes.

As retrofitting a home to improve its energy efficiency can be costly, there is an argument that new-build homes should all be receiving A ratings to shield buyers against future upgrade costs – as well as cutting their energy bills.

A more energy efficient home can also mean a cheaper mortgage, as lenders are increasingly offering ‘green mortgages’ which give lower rates or higher loan amounts to those with certain EPC ratings.

The Government is consulting on plans to force lenders to reveal the EPC bands of properties they give mortgages on, meaning those with lower ratings could find it harder to secure a loan.

We asked the housebuilders, which are some of the UK’s largest companies, five questions about the energy efficiency of their homes. Only one – Bellway – came back with answers to all five.

What we asked the housebuilders 

The five questions we asked of the housebuilders were:

1. Do you have a minimum Energy Performance Certificate rating that all new homes must achieve?
2. What percentage of the homes you completed in your last full financial year achieved each EPC rating?
3. When designing your homes, how do you work out which features and specifications they will need in order to meet their target EPC rating? (Eg. level of insulation, type of windows, energy sources).
4. If you build homes that are not designed to reach an EPC A, what is the reason for that?
5. Do you have any plans to improve the EPC ratings that your properties achieve, or their energy efficiency more generally? What are they?

Four more – Barratt, Bellway, Persimmon, Redrow and Taylor Wimpey, provided us with a general comment about energy efficiency.

Countryside and McCarthy & Stone declined to comment, while Berkeley, Bovis Homes and Crest Nicholson did not respond.

The latest Energy Performance Certificate data for England, recorded between July and September 2021, states that 84 per cent of new properties were given an A or B rating, while 82 per cent of existing dwellings were given a C or D.

Responses suggested that most new-build homes are currently achieving a B energy efficiency rating – but three of the five builders that responded admitted that they did still build some homes that were a C or below.

Barratt and Bellway were the only housebuilders to confirm that all of their homes achieved at least a B.

Bellway was the only builder that agreed to provide a breakdown of its EPC ratings.

It told us that, in the last financial year, 10 per cent of the homes it completed achieved an A rating, and 90 per cent achieved a B.

It said its average EPC was 84, with the required score for a B rating being between 81 and 91.

Redrow said ‘the majority’ of its homes achieved a B or above, while Taylor Wimpey said its homes ‘generally’ had a B or above and Persimmon said ‘almost all’ were rated B or above.

When asked why they were not building new homes to achieve an A rating, most said doing so would add too much to the price.

Daniel Hastings, technical manager at Redrow, said: ‘Building all our homes to an EPC A rating would add a significant amount to the property cost.

‘Rather than imposing this as standard, we prefer to offer our customers better value for money with the choice to upgrade their EPC rating if they wish through a range of different solutions.’

He added that there were additional options available such as solar panels, which homeowners could add to their property if they wished at an extra cost.

Another way to improve a home’s EPC rating is by installing an air source or ground source heat pump, instead of a gas boiler.

According to the Centre for Sustainable Energy, the typical cost of installing an air source heat pump unit is £6,500–£10,000 depending on the size of the property it needs to heat. eil Jefferson, managing director of industry body the Home Builders’ Federation, said there were not enough qualified installers to make having a heat pump a realistic prospect for all new homes. 

‘Heat pumps are an important technology for new build homes, but there are significant challenges to overcome, mainly relating to the need to grow installation and servicing skills and capacity,’ he said.  

‘The number of heat pumps currently being installed is dwarfed by the number of homes constructed annually, and so a huge uplift in capacity is required’. 

There are currently around 30,000 heat pumps installed each year.

Only Bellway said it was considering installing heat pumps as part of its standard design.

It said: ‘We are currently trialling air source heat pumps to ensure that they are configured correctly and incorporated into the Bellway design principles to deliver low CO2 emissions along with low running costs for our customers.’

Other builders said they were not building more homes to EPC A standard because current regulations did not require them to.

Bellway’s statement said: ‘The current and incoming building regulations threshold is below an A band EPC. Some will achieve an A band dependent upon the amount of solar PV and the plot orientation.’

Taylor Wimpey also told us that having a certain EPC rating was not specified in current regulations, and that it instead followed a ‘notional dwelling approach’.

This is Money also asked whether the builders were looking into improving their EPC bands in future.

Persimmon said it had been investing in technology trials. It said: ‘We are investing in a number of technology trials – including a ‘zero carbon ready’ house – to secure further improvements in energy efficiency and also reduce carbon emissions.’

Barratt said it had also just launched a ‘new flagship concept zero carbon home containing technology which will become the future blueprint of sustainable living.’

As well as the heat pump trial, Bellway said it was ‘conducting research projects looking at what energy efficiency solutions will be included in the model design and strategy for the Future Homes Standard.’

The standard, which is set to be introduced in 2025, will mean that new homes will have to produce 75 to 80 per cent less carbon emissions than homes delivered under current regulations.

It said its tests were focused on making sure any new technologies achieved maximum running cost savings for its customers.

‘Homes that exceed the proposed Future Homes Standard are being constructed across several sites in the UK, and the energy performance of these homes will be monitored to allow insight into their performance in real world environments,’ it said.

‘With the cost of energy being a significant issue for many UK households, we are testing in order to find the best alternative technologies that help achieve these targets but also consider the costs for consumers in the day-to-day running of their homes as we move away from traditional gas boilers.’

The Home Builders’ Federation told This is Money that the housebuilding industry was ‘committed’ to meeting the energy efficiency targets.

Jefferson said: ‘The industry is absolutely committed to delivering the Government’s environmental targets and is continuing to work with stakeholders to ensure that the implementation timetable for the proposed Future Homes Standard from 2025 is achieved, together with interim uplifts in regulations along the way.’

‘New build homes are already significantly more energy efficient than older homes, saving owners hundreds of pounds a year, a growing benefit as energy prices continue to rise.

‘Crucially, we also need to ensure consumers are comfortable with new technologies as ultimately they need to purchase and live in tomorrow’s new homes.’

ONS: CONSTRUCTION SECTOR R&D SPENDING SURGES NEARLY 30% TO ALL-TIME HIGH

Annual R&D spending in the construction sector has exploded 30% in 12 months to an all-time high, according to ONS data released on Friday1.

R&D spending across construction industry businesses in the UK rose 27.9% to £586m in 2020 having grown 4,086% in a decade, analysis by R&D tax relief specialist Catax shows. 

The total stood at just £14m in 2010 and has since risen to more than 41 times that figure. It now makes up 2.2% of total UK R&D spending.

The industry has vastly outperformed the UK overall. Across all sectors, UK R&D spending grew 3.5% last year to a record £26.9bn2. This was a rise of 67.9% since 2010.

The number of people employed by all UK businesses in R&D roles also reached a record high last year, climbing 6.8% to 283,000 full-time equivalents — an 83.8% rise since 2010.

The Government has set a target to bring UK R&D spending up to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. It is currently running at 1.7% of GDP according to the latest ONS figures3.

Mark Tighe, CEO of R&D tax relief specialist Catax, said:

“The construction sector is one of the fastest growing industries when it comes to R&D spending. 

“Though it is starting from a lower base, it has risen at breakneck speed over the past decade and shows no signs of slowing down. With offsite construction, Modern Methods of Construction and a world reaching for more sustainable buildings fuelling innovations in this arena, it’s going to be fascinating to see where these figures end up in a few years’ time.

“A significant portion of this spending will be earning those companies responsible millions of pounds in R&D tax credits which can be reinvested straight back into R&D.”

CorkSol, the exclusive UK distributor of innovative building coating, SprayCork, is pleased to report a successful show at this year’s UK Construction Week. The first key industry event in over 18 months, UKCW is one of the most anticipated events in the construction calendar.

On stand CorkSol showcased its next generation SprayCork product and introduced its extensive range of colours which are now available. With 28 shades spanning modern neutrals and a select number of more daring options, there is a colour to suit any project.

Attracting over 100 visitors to the stand, the team at CorkSol was delighted to meet with customers old and new and explain the added benefits and improvements made to SprayCork which make it one of the most eco-friendly coating solutions on the market.

In addition to the UKCW exhibition, CorkSol was also invited to attend Grand Designs Live for a second year as a ‘Returning Green Hero’, where the company was personally selected by Kevin McCloud to champion their product as a market leader in sustainable building materials.

Joff Ward, Managing Director at Corksol UK adds: “Where better to have our first show return than at UK Construction Week? We arrived full of optimism that it would be a great show and we were not disappointed. It was fantastic to see so many people pull together to give the show the welcome back it deserves. The trade, homeowners, designers, developers, architects, specifiers and consultants turned out in volume and proved that there is a huge appetite for business to get back to normal.

“Trade shows are incredibly important for professionals to get up to speed with the latest products and brands and we were delighted to have brought the CorkSol name to those who would otherwise still be unaware of what we offer.”

To find out more, please visit www.corksoluk.com

CorkSol UK exclusively distributes CorkSol SprayCork in the UK. A revolutionary coating system made from natural cork, SprayCork can be used both externally and internally for a wide range of residential and commercial projects. A sustainable solution, SprayCork offers an eco-friendly alternative to traditional render systems, paints and other coatings, but with the same high performance. No quarrying is required for the raw ingredients. Bark is simply stripped away from the tree, releasing oxygen into the air which reduces cardon dioxide in the environment, leaving the tree to naturally regenerate. Breathable, weather resistant with excellent insulation properties, this is a coating solution that answers the needs of modern society.